Steamboat Springs

We were checked into our flights to Colorado and standing outside at Oakland International Airport – trying to minimize our time indoors – when my phone vibrated with a new text message. It was from Vacasa, the company through which we’d booked our accommodation over Christmas, letting me know that our stay had been canceled. The condo we’d booked in Keystone wasn’t supposed to have been available to book when I made the reservaiton – some kind of administrative error – so we were suddenly without anywhere to sleep for the second of our two Christmas ski weeks. I called and they offered us a number of other properties in the area with one catch: we’d have to cut short our vacation by a day. Um, no. I didn’t have much time to discuss our options as we had to hop on the plane shortly thereafter, but long story short: when we arrived in Denver and picked up our rental truck I summoned my mother’s negotiating skills and spent an hour on the phone along I-70, eventually getting Vacasa to put us up in two separate condos during the second week of our two week stay in Colorado so we wouldn’t have to go home early. Unnecessary stress to begin the vacation, but that’s 2020!

Once I’d finished with Vacasa, we hopped off I-70 in Silverthorne and onto Highway 9 bound for Glenn’s house in Steamboat Springs. It was dark by the time we reached Silverthorne and it started snowing on us a little, but the snow wasn’t too hectic and it was a pretty drive looking at all the ranches lit up with Christmas lights as we traversed northwestern Colorado. The kids waited up late for Glenn to get home from work the day we arrived, they had so much fun staying back in March just before COVID hit they were biting at the bit to see him again this time around. I don’t think he expected two munchkins hiding behind the door to the garage when he walked in!

Day one skiing Steamboat was one of our best days for snow conditions, there was 5-7 inches of fresh, champagne powder covering the resort and the kids were loving being back on their skis. It was early season conditions so the entire mountain wasn’t open yet, one or two rocks to avoid here and there, but after the last few months cooped up in California I think everyone was pretty excited to experience a change of scenery and breathe some fresh mountain air (albeit through masks…).

It was certainly a bit of a different experience skiing during COVID: mandatory masks in the chairlift lines and on the chairs, masks also required when walking through the ski village at the mountain base, we drove to the base each day instead of catching the free shuttle out the front of Glenn’s house, and – the real curveball – no eating indoors at the resort’s lodges. While eating outside, even when it’s snowing, on California’s slopes wouldn’t be much of an issue, Colorado is no California when it comes to temperatures. Unlike California, it’s pretty rare for temperatures to get above freezing on the slopes in Colorado so we had to focus on stopping to eat for the absolute minimum amount of time so we didn’t all start to get cold fingers and toes. I would make a thermos of hot chocolate every morning along with packed sandwiches that I’d carry in a backpack, and we’d secure a spot somewhere at one of the mid-mountain lodges to eat, hoping the hot chocolate would keep us warm. To be honest, I think the kids’ circulation kept them much warmer than Lisa and I (we’re getting old…), but there was really only one day I can remember struggling to get warm again after stopping for lunch. Both Lisa and I were pretty impressed at the kids’ staying power, as we were on the slopes by 9AM every morning and didn’t stop skiing until at least 2PM each day. A silver lining to COVID: all the mountain biking we’d been doing since March put everyone’s legs and stamina in top shape for the slopes.

On our second-to-last day skiing Steamboat we scored a magic day of blue skies and Colorado corduroy, the early morning groomers were a ton of fun (although Max’s speed down some of them had both of us parents a little nervous!). After skiing that day it was really the only time we ventured out during our stay, heading to old town to grab some souvenirs and sample a beer at Mountain Tap Brewery. The brewery was founded by Glenn’s neighbor, who was a brewmaster at Kona Brewing in Hawaii and then for Breckenridge Brewery in Denver before venturing out on his own with Mountain Tap. Definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in Steamboat Springs.

The weather during our adventure downtown for souvenirs deserves special mention: it started with overcast skies but took a bit of an unexpected turn when we were in Lisa’s favorite little souvenir shop Ohana. Everyone’s smartphone’s started buzzing with emergency alerts, and a few seconds later we turned around to see two people enter the store absolutely covered in snow. The emergency alert was a squall warning, and with the space of a minute or two it started dumping snow with an accumulation rate of what had to be more than a foot per hour. We had to run back to where the truck was parked through the onslaught, struggling to even see where we were putting our feet because the snow was falling almost horizontally and blowing directly into our eyes. Max had an absolute conniption – you’d think the boy had lost one of his limbs – but we eventually made it back to the sanctuary of the Dodge truck we’d rented, caked in snow and with the ferocity of a Colorado squall permanently etched into all our memories!

The squall was the beginning of a night of fresh snow for our last day in Steamboat, the snow gods certainly delivered: 10 inches of fresh powder at the summit and cold temps to keep it light and fluffy all day. And when I say cold temps, I mean Colorado-cold: it didn’t get above -19ºC/-2ºF for the entire day! It was one of the coldest days I can remember skiing, there was one point on High Noon where I had to stop skiing because the tiny gaps between my helmet and goggles were letting in enough frigid air to give me an ice cream headache. It was so cold that my little GoPro camera couldn’t hack the temps, the battery basically stopped functioning after a few seconds each time I’d turn it on, so not too many photos/videos of the powder that day. But even with the cold, the stoke of fresh snow kept us all cruising, I think we skied the powder and trees on Sunshine Lift Line four or five times that day. Fun.

Glenn treated us to oysters and Lisa contributed a nice bottle of pinot for our last night in Steamboat Springs. Glenn’s girlfriend Michele also joined us, it was nice for all of us to see her again. We even had the Steamboat Springs fire department ferry Santa along the street in front of Glenn’s house just before dinner! A great way to cap off an awesome week on the slopes… Thanks again for having us, Glenn!